Manager Karl Robinson has credited the Charlton Athletic fans for helping the side to get over the line in the weekend’s clash with MK Dons.
Heading to Stadium: MK to face off against his former club, a delighted Robinson was more than content with a hard fought two one victory and although we conceded their consolation strike and they battled hard to find the leveller in the final 30 minutes of the game, he knew he had to be pleased with all three points heading our way.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the game, Robinson was quick to praise the efforts of the fans across the 90 minutes.
‘The three points were the most important thing. Those fans who were in the stands were outstanding. I was trying to get them going with two or three minutes to go, but they were already at a phenomenal noise level. I want to thank them so much, because they`ve worked very hard to help us. I think they realised with five minutes to go that we needed them more than the players needed me. The fans stood up today and without them, we may not have seen that out.’
Robinson went on to say.
‘They`ve been brilliant since I walked in the building. There might have been some uncertainty not knowing me or my passions for the club that I work for, I think they know that my players wear their shirt with proud. Win, lose or draw, we`ll always try our best and that`s any fan ever asks for. And all any player can ask for from a fan is that they sing their hearts out and get behind them when the going gets tough and our fans certainly did that. Their support gave us a bit of extra confidence and we forgot about the negativity of recent games which allowed us to get the win.’
Conceding late goals had become an Achilles heel in recent times, so with throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at us as the game came to a close, Robinson knew that seeing the game out would be massive for confidence purposes as well.
‘The players saw the last 10 minutes out wonderfully well. But we did that away at Doncaster. We played no differently here than we did at Doncaster, but for a deflection. We played no differently against Bradford the other day, but for another deflection dropping to one of their players. We`ve seen games out very, very well and today was a little bit pleasing because it was an important one to get us back into the top six. We went to a back five late on and just felt that it would see it out a bit better. I`m really proud of the players for how they`ve achieved what they`ve done today.’
With form levels seeing two points taken on average from our last seven matches, Robinson knew that if we could maintain that it would be ‘automatic promotion’ form but whilst that may be beyond us, if we can keep that going we will more than secure a Play Off spot and that has to be the first aim with us sitting in sixth place in the League One table.
‘If you look at the last seven games, we`ve got 14 points so it`s two points a game which, as we know, is automatic promotion form. So it`s not a bad little run that we`re on. We`ve still got Tariqe Fosu to come back and Stephy Mavididi a few weeks away. We changed one or two things and played different personnel in those positions and I can`t ask any more from my players. They were excellent.’
Having referenced a couple of players we can still welcome back this season, he went on to talk more about the injury situation at the club.
‘When you`ve got Pearcey, who is one of the best centre-backs in the league, Harry Lennon, Naby Sarr, we`ve got five of the top centre-backs in the league, so if you lose one, we`ll miss them, of course, but we`re very, very fortunate that we`ve got a lot of players in that position. I don`t know about the injury to Patrick, but we`ll find out Monday. Tariqe Fosu will be back for Saturday, we hope. It was just a fatigue injury.’
Onto Shrewsbury Town next weekend and hopefully another three points.
‘Shrewsbury lost to Rotherham today, so it just shows that they`re beatable. They`ll look to turn that around because they`ll know they`ve got a massive game at The Valley, and when The Valley is rocking, it`s a great place for us to play. We`re looking forward to staying in the top six now and keeping our front foot going forward. We`ve got two games in hand on the two teams above and below us, so it`s not a bad turnaround. I think we got to 51 points last season with two games to go, so it`s great to be in that position with 15 games to go.’
